Crime Scene Cleanup

So, I'm on a roll with these Chickamis. I just finished number three, and she's a-blockin'. (There may be some emergency surgery later, however. I'm not happy with a few stitches on the front. Depending on how it looks, I may run two lifelines, surgically remove the offending rows and graft the sucker back together. Otherwise, my obsessive mind will never let me forget that those stitches don't look quite right to me.) Pics of all stages will follow if that happens. I finished last night and decided that a thorough soaking might help to even things out, so I put the tank in for a good soak with some Kookaburra Wool Wash (love that smell!), and went to bed. This morning, it looked like my top had been used for major crime scene cleanup. I saved a glassful of the soaking water to show you. There is so much dye that you cannot see through the glass--it is practically opaque. You can't tell here, but it is exactly the deep red color of blood:

The label on a skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece warns of color migration, but this is color exodus. I won't know until it dries, but the color of the garment seems not to be significantly different. I've noticed runoff with my other Cotton Fleece projects, but this was beyond the pale. It's a warning to not use Cotton Fleece for multi-colored projects, to be sure. (I'd thought about a striped tank using leftover bits and skeins, but that is officially off the table after this!) It also means that if I do perform surgery, I will pre-wash the yarn I use for it so that it exhausts some of its color, too. (FYI, the colorway is Sedona Red, which is a rusty red.)

I was down in the Craft Dungeon on Friday playing with more yarn and dye. I almost always listen to NPR, and they had some of the more interesting commentary about Michael Jackson. Since we are so close to Gary, IN, the local news has been out of control. Actually, all the news has been. I watched CBS Friday night, and Katie Couric paused for--no joking--maybe 4 minutes to report on something other than the death of Michael Jackson. As someone who came of age in the 70s and 80s, he was ever-present. I loved the Jackson 5 cartoon when I was a kid. I remember watching the Motown 25th Anniversary special and being amazed. My senior year, I was in something called AV Homeroom; it meant that we "produced" our morning TV show, but more importantly, we got to go to the AV room during study hall and watch MTV. Seriously. 1983-84-era MTV in instead of actual study hall? Clearly, a first-rate education was had. I knew every video in MTV's rotation by heart, including his. I must say, however, that the bizarre behavior, the disfiguring plastic surgery, and the legal issues turned me off to him. I do still love some of the old Jackson 5 hits (especially The Love You Save and ABC), although it's sad to think that whatever was happening to him then caused much of the strangeness in his later life.

I'm getting very excited about Sock Summit. I just picked my colors for the Orion Sock. I'm going to use Oregon Red Clover Honey and Crabby McHappyPants. I think the ORCH--which I love, love, love for its subtle shading and sophistication--will be a good foil for the brightymcbrightington-ness off CMcHP. Don't know if I'll get them done for SS, what with the four bazillion Chickamis and other warm-weather tops I still plan to make this summer. (I know some folks are taking things quite seriously and concocting sock-y costumes of sorts for the Sock Hop. I'm not likely to be one of them.) I need to get cracking on my homework for Meg Swansen's class, too. Plus, I'm looking forward to some quality time in Portland with the husband, who has been working way too much lately.